Consisting of six stories first published between 1976 and 2001, this collection of stories set in Japan provides a glimpse into Japanese folklore through beautiful artwork and precise prose. While some of the stories were too short, Momotaro was the exception. By taking the time to set up and develop the story, the reading experience was exceptional.

The art in this book is truly breathtaking, with every page being a study in contrast, composition, and layering. In turn, the lettering retains the sketchy feel of the art and beautifully accompanies it.

This edition is a must-have in every comic book collection.

Toppi is such an amazing artist that he could have illustrated a shopping list and I would be enthralled. His hatching and line work is just jaw dropping, so while some of these stories are somewhat Japanese cliché, the way thy are presented is so stunning that it almost doesn't matter. And when the art is paired with a more unexpected story, amazing things happen. Looking forward to reading more volumes of his collected work.

Sergio Toppi was one of the great European comic artists. His line work is exquisite. This collects his short stories set in Japan, mostly based on Japanese folklore. Momotaro was my favorite. It's based on the Peach Boy story about a boy who can talk to animals and eventually slays demons. The other stories weren't fantastical but still good.

The Collected Toppi Volume Six: Japan

From the blurb: 'This sixth volume contains five tales set in feudal Japan, presented in English for the first time: Tanka, Kimura, Sato, Ogari 1650, and Momotaro.'

There is a sixth story contained in this volume called 'The Return of Ishi'. I'm not entirely sure whether it's not being listed is an error of omission or if it means that 'The Return of Ishi' was previously published in English somewhere else while the others were not. Regardless, it's a good story so that's all that actually matters.

'Tanka' - A young princess keeps her eyes closed, refusing to look at the world after her idyllic existence is ruined by war. A humble ronin implores her to open her eyes to the world that still remains.

'Kimura' - A legendary sword maker must compromise his principles to appease an evil tyrant.

'The Return of Ishi' - An elderly peasant couple anxiously waits for their son to return from war.

'Sato' - A small boy learns the truth about a revered warrior of legend from a local hermit.

'Ogari 1650' - A once mighty ronin is forced to become a humble laborer.

'Momotaro' - In a time of great unrest an orphan child, raised in the woods by a kindly old man, seeks his way in the world and becomes a symbol of hope to the downtrodden.

Oddly, these stories seem less exotic than some of the previous volumes. Where others have been whimsical, almost magical tales of heroes, villains, life lessons and hard truths these collected stories are more mundane. Snapshots of everyday lives lived with great ritual but little wonder... The art, as always, is amazing.

The standouts are 'Tanka', which is inspired by an actual person (as explained at the end of it), and 'Momotaro', which is the only one to really capture that folklore-ish mystical quality that was such a hallmark of the previous volumes (highly recommended).

The only real clunker in the bunch is 'Ogari 1650' which I found to be contrived and insubstantial compared to the others in this collection.

If I were to judge solely on the artwork - great black & white illustrations that bring to mind the kind of fine art copperplate engravings of long ago - this would be a five star book all the way but I'm just not terribly impressed with the actual storylines so I'm giving this 3.5 stars bumped up to four stars.

Sergio Toppi was one of the masters of European comics, sadly passing away about a decade ago. What he leaves behind is nearly a century of amazing illustrations and comics, finally being collected for the English market here in numerous volumes. I was unaware of this series (The Collected Toppi) until I saw this collection of pieces he did that happen to be themed around, or take place in Japan, available for review. As a result, I will definitely need to seek some more of these out as I love his artwork. Toppi first came to my attention when Heavy Metal Magazine either ran a feature on, or posted an article on their website about an impressive tarot deck he had released at some point. The images were striking, and I was amazed he was not more of a household name over here. The artwork is not atypical for European comics, but I can imagine that is because a lot of folks that came after him borrowed from his style considerably.

“This sixth volume contains five tales set in feudal Japan, presented in English for the first time: Tanka, Kimura, Sato, Ogari 1650, and Momotaro.
Featuring a new foreword by celebrated artist Kent Williams.”


The thing that is most striking of these stories is the authenticity they hold. It may be that Toppi was a fan of Akira Kurosawa samurai films or some such, but these stories stand out from the typical “mysterious far east” tropes that many western properties had at the time. Things like The Mikado or a multitude of Asian martial arts films come to mind as being especially problematic in regards to weird notions of what Japan was. These collected stories span from 1976 to as late as 2001, and each one is rich with beautiful art and deep with intrigue in the scripts. Most are adapted from tales from Japanese history, which show’s Toppi’s commitment to authenticity. I enjoyed his take on the legendary blacksmith Goro Masamune quite a bit, especially.

This is a no-brainer for anyone that enjoys European comics – do yourself a favor and start looking at these gorgeous volumes. Also, if you are a fan of Samurai films of the 1960’s and 1970’s, I’d imagine this would also be up there with something you would enjoy. They are available in hardcover volumes, which I assume would be most people’s preferred choice, or as a Kindle E-book. As far as I can tell, there are six volumes in this series that are numbered as this one is, and one on Biblical stories that appears to be in the same style.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Another wonderful anthology from the incomparable Italian legend. The art is always superb and the tales told here are expressed with such delicate draftmanship. A must for any comic book fan.

As always, the story telling and the capturing art of Sergio Toppi were amazing. I enjoyed the book so much, and I will be looking for previous volumes that I've missed.

Thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors, for the eArc of this Graphic Novel.

As I was not into Comics, Graphic Novels before I had never heard of Sergio Toppi and his art.
And I didn't know this series.
But I am interested, feudal japan. So when I saw it on my list of requests on NetGalley, it was a no-brainer. I had to read it.

I was not let down, let me tell you. The drawings are aggressively haunting. I love the traits and I love the details, in each character's face. While reading, I was regretting not knowing this series earlier.

The stories were all beautiful. I dived in each of them individually jumping from one to the other, with ease. Sergio Toppi, not only is he a great artist, but he is also a great storyteller.

I couldn't advise it more. I may be a bookseller, I don't know enough about Graphic Novels to talk about it as a professional. I can only say, that I thoroughly enjoyed the read. And I would definitely promote it at my job!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was crazy amazing work of art, I could not be overcome with awe in the presence of such a masterpiece. I felt like I was watching some old Samourai Japanese movies. The tales were so fascinating due to the artist work that you find youself so immersed in the stories till the end. I've already seen Toppi's work but I've never got interested in finding or reading more, I was always more attracted to Hugo Pratt's books since I discovered him when it comes to Italian's comic books creators. In Europe these great artists are not forgotten because they continue to be republished so that the new generations could discover them as well.

This graphic short story collection is an absolute gem!
There are five Japanese fairytales included and adapted as graphic novels by Sergio Toppi.
As an artist and illustrator myself I was blown away by the use of composition, style, facial expression, body language and use of white space throughout the book.
I’m glad I’ve stumbled across this little collection and I’m sure to find more by the artist.

I can recommend this to anybody who likes Japanese fairytales or just a beautifully inked graphic novel in general. The text isn’t perfect by any means, but the art is worth it.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Magnetic Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of short stories set in ancient Japan are hauntingly beautiful and amacingly drawn. I expecially enjoyed the first one about a woman, who watched her world crumble and now refuses to open her eyes and watch the destruction of what once was.

Highly recommended.

Another great collection of illustrated stories by Toppi, this one all about Japan. This is the sixth volume in a collection of Toppi’s work, each volume highlighting a different region or culture’s folklore. Each volume has been delicious in its lines, Toppi was truly a master of his art, the stories themselves are dark but really bring out the essence of the theme. With the Japan volume, each story is centered on war. There are plenty of samurai and ronin, and enough mythical creatures to make things interesting. The opening story sets us off on our journey with a Princess who has been left with nothing and the volume ends with Toppi’s version of Momotaro. This last story is my favorite.

If you enjoy graphic novels or art, or are interested in Japanese folklore you will enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I'm very impressed with the art style. The artist worked with straight lines and changing perspectives. It feels quite linear, without appearing static. There are bold contrasts between black and white, but the illustrations are still very detailed.
The stories themselves are rather short, they mostly adapt the theme of war and its consequences like loss or guilt. The illustrations impressed me more than the stories, but I still enjoyed this collection very much.
3.5 Stars.

See reviews passim regarding this series about how great I think Toppi is at visually creating his comic short stories. My memory doesn't give me any clues as to whether I lauded his actual storytelling craft, but the first piece here made me do it. I didn't know of the royal poetess the tale concerns itself with, but if she penned one of the first tanka verses and nobody really knows the truth of what it means, this makes for a delicious back-story to that poem, and it's just such a wonderfully fun, high-brow yet perfectly accessible entertainment. It also proves you can feature ronin and warriors and hacky-slash stuff, without the need for all the genre action filling the page.

There're a massacre and lots of sword-play in the second piece, too, but again it's pretty much all off-page. What this proved to me was that Toppi was a master at getting to the core of lots of storytelling worlds, without ever patronising – the stereotypes of the measured Japanese way of thinking, social restrictions, respect for craftsmanship etc are all here but done with perfect cultural sensitivity. The third work in this collection has all the hallmarks of a traditional Japanese folklore tale, too, while someone dares to get their sword out and use it in the fourth, which is fine stuff – if the bearer of a twist you see from miles off. Nobody would see the reveal in the next piece coming, but that's because it's blatantly stupid, proving that throughout his extensive career, and with so many publications to cater for, Toppi was more than capable of naffness.

That's not a description of the final story, a longer-form piece that again has all the hallmarks of folk tale (a fox gifting a quester a sack containing just what he needs for every eventuality, and so on), and all the respect I talked about. You could see a fully animated cartoon version of the fantasy at play here, but you can also see that with these pages such a thing is unnecessary. It's wonderful, and caps a really strong themed compilation of someone ranked amongst the greats. All the volumes from this series I've had the privilege to see have been well worth my time, and this has the one misfire to prevent it from being five stars. The gap is shoji-thin, mind.